Asurans
The Asurans, referred to as Replicators by the Tau'ri, were a technological life-form originally created by the Lanteans as a means of fighting the Wraith, and are far more advanced than the Milky Way replicators. Overview The Asurans, while appearing to be a human, are actually a collection of microscopic nanites that combined to form a much more complex organism that mimics the form of their creators; the Lanteans. As such, while they might appear to be Human, they are in fact a machine based species with a great level of strength which can easily overpower a Human. Furthermore, their lack of a true skin meant that projectile weapons were useless against them as the bullets simply passed through their bodies. Any "wounds" simply healed at an accelerated rate with no degradation in the Asuran's movements. Certain forms of energy weapons seemed to be capable of stunning them but only for a moment. All Asurans were far stronger than humans and were capable of sending a human flying with just a single push. In addition to this, the nanites in their body allowed them to probe the minds of Humanoids in a similar capacity as that of the Milky Way's Human-form Replicator's. All that required was the Asuran to move their hands to the forehead of the individual and press forward. The nanites passed through the skin where it interacted with the brain of the organic being. In this state, the Asuran was capable of replicating a virtual world with the Human being unaware of the probing. This process allowed the Asuran to experience the memories and thoughts of the Human though those with prior experience of this action can resist their attempts. When exiting the probe, the Human typically experiences a great deal of pain. This process was described by Richard Woolsey as the most painful experience he had ever seen. Despite this, it appears that the process could be made painless, as Niam did by sharing visions with the cooperative Dr. Elizabeth Weir. Other Asurans were capable of doing this act on their fellow kind. They were also capable of killing fellow Asurans by placing their hands in the body of another Replicator and severing the nanite bonds causing them to disintegrate into a pile of dust. The Asuran nanites were highly aggressive due to the nature of their programming as they were to be used as a bioweapon. This was so great that it surpassed their enemies even. The technology used allowed for the organic assimilation and self-replication to increase their effectiveness. This increased to the point that the molecular machines began to form even more complex organisms and eventually evolved into the most efficient form they knew of which was that of their creators. The nanites were able to incorporate organic material into their makeup if the raw material was available. Being a machine race, the Asurans are ultimately governed by the coding with which the Lanteans programmed them. The Lanteans implanted a number of directives within the Asurans' Base code. This was incredibly complex and contained a code of over three billion chemical base sequences. It included parameters that prevented the Asurans from harming their creators and from tampering with the code themselves. Another directive prevented them from altering their physical appearance to match another living being. The basic core of their being was programmed in a way that made them feel a need to attack the Wraith. While this was the case, it was possible for outsiders to alter the Base code. Initial tampering allowed for the Asurans to alter their own programming, allowing them to bypass the directive that prevented them from harming their own creators. The Asurans were each individual units despite their basic command code being interconnected over a powerful subspace frequency. While this was the case, they were not a collective hive mind like the Milky Way Replicators. This expansive subspace network linked them all together and allowed them to know whatever their comrades were perceiving. This also allowed them to watch for signs of betrayal among their kind and were capable of Resetting a rogue Asuran who are reverted to their base programming which is a highly aggressive state that attacks any enemies that it perceives. While rogue Asurans were capable of being reprogrammed by the collective, certain groups were capable of maintaining their presence and hiding within it. The subspace collective allowed the Asurans to track their own movements. The Asurans, as with the Milky Way replicators, can quickly learn and adapt to any situation. It is known that Asurans will sacrifice their bodies by walking into weaponsfire, allowing the others to learn more and build up an immunity even quicker. The Asurans may be a direct continuation of the project the Ancients worked on in the Milky Way, as the Human-form replicators in the Milky Way and Asurans in Pegasus are similar in many ways. History Thousands of years ago During the war with the Wraith, the Lanteans sought to create a weapon which would attack Wraith DNA. Turning to nanite technology, the Lanteans built nanites which would allow for organic assimilation and self replication, encoded with an aggression code that surpassed even that of the Wraith. Without warning, the nanites suddenly began replicating and interlocking, taking the most advanced form they knew—human. Even in this form, the aggression codes remained. Fueled by a rage they could not understand, the machines begged the Lanteans to remove the aggression programming, but the Lanteans refused, for they had created base codes that prevented the Asurans from harming them, and they were desperate to find a weapon to destroy the Wraith. When they concluded that the Asurans would not be the weapon they sought, the Lantean Council sent a fleet of Aurora-class battleships to Asuras, wiping out the laboratory and the nanites, and deleted all references to the project from their database, save for Asuras' Stargate address. However, some of the nanites survived, and began to replicate again which resulted in the Second Birth. After the Lanteans lost the war and returned to the Milky Way galaxy, the Asurans began to attack the Wraith. The Wraith created a shut down code that deactivated their directive to attack them. This resulted in them returning to their homeworld where they isolated themselves to that planet alone. 2006 Ten thousand years later, the Asurans had achieved much: they had built many City-ships as well as surrounding structures, and were able to mass-produce Zero Point Modules as fast as the Lanteans could. Most of the Asurans, such as Oberoth, were content to live as they had, but some, like Niam, desired to ascend and truly equal their creators. When the Atlantis expedition contacted them, the Asurans welcomed them at first, claiming that they were a faction who had split with the Lanteans over how to act in the war with the Wraith. Upon learning that their visitors needed ZPMs, they forcefully probed their minds and learned that their visitors, many of whom were descendants of the Lanteans, had taken up residence in a very much intact Atlantis. Intending to destroy Atlantis out of retribution, they sent one City-ship to Lantea; however, Dr. Rodney McKay, with the help of Niam, tried to alter their Base code and remove their aggressive tendencies. McKay also created a program that froze the Asurans, and rigged the City-ship to detonate. Taking Niam with them, the team escaped via Puddle Jumper after the explosion. All was well until the other Asurans reset Niam's programming and he attacked Dr. Elizabeth Weir, but he was ejected into space and eventually went dormant in orbit. 2007 After Atlantis had been reclaimed by living Lanteans, the Asurans attacked the city. Having found a way to overcome the code which prevented them from harming their creators, they killed the Lanteans, occupied the city and took Major General Jack O'Neill and Richard Woolsey captive. Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, Weir, McKay, Ronon Dex, Dr. Carson Beckett, and Teyla Emmagan hatched a daring plot to rescue O'Neill, Woolsey, and Atlantis. They initially attempted to use Niam to upload a virus into the Asurans which would freeze them for seven hours, allowing them to attack the Asurans. However, Niam reactivated, forcing them to kill him. As a new plan, they modified the city's shield emitters to release a massive Replicator disruptor wave, destroying the Asurans who invaded the city. Angered that both attempts to take the city failed, they started to build a fleet of ships to strike at the heart of the problem – Earth. The Apollo made short work of this plan by destroying the ships with the Horizon weapon. The Asurans then attempted to destroy Atlantis a third time with a Stargate Satellite, firing a sustained energy beam through the Stargate at Atlantis. All attempts to destroy the satellite failed. Using their unlimited ZPMs, they were able to keep the Stargate open indefinitely. The Asurans almost succeeded in destroying Atlantis, only to have it fly away. Niam's group of Asurans, attempting to ascend, create full flesh and blood humans with the memories and consciousness of the First Atlantis Reconnaissance team as well as Elizabeth Weir. These "Organic Asurans" were forced to escape when Oberoth tracked the rogue faction and destroyed their city-ship. Shortly after, the organics contacted Atlantis and gave them a core drive, containing the coordinates of every single Asuran warship in the Pegasus galaxy. Colonel Carter ordered the Apollo and Daedalus to ambush and destroy the warships, which allowed them to destroy seven before the entire Asuran fleet fell back to Asuras. In order to prevent the Tau'ri from destroying any more of their fleet, Oberoth ordered the remaining 31 ships to return to Asuras. Not long after, the Tau'ri, Wraith, and Travelers' combined fleet attacks their homeworld. Oberoth's faction of Asurans are wiped out, along with their homeworld of Asuras, in the Battle of Asuras, although Niam's faction, headed by Replicator Weir, survive the destruction. 2008 Weir's group later contacts Atlantis in an effort to gain fully human bodies in order to ascend. The expedition was willing to help them, until a member of the group betrayed them, resulting in the remaining members of the faction being led through the Stargate and left in the vacuum of space where they were incapacitated. These were believed to be the last Asurans in existance. Category:Asurans